My first all grain......disaster??

Hi All,

I finally made my first all-grain but I'm a little worried that it is turning into a disaster.

I transfered it into a pressure barrel today after it has been in two different fermenting bins for the past 2 weeks (I can go into far more detail if needed). I measured the gravity right at the beginning and it read 1.020. After I transferred it into the pressure barrel with some sugar and it read 1.010.

Admitedly, I have only just put it into the pressure barrel today and I have another 7 days to go according to the recipe, but two things are worrying me:

1. According to a calculation I found on the internet, my ABV will be 1% !
2. It doesn't taste good.

Re point 1, the calculation I am using is as follows:

1.05 x (OG - FG) / 1.02 x 100

So, in my case, 1.05 x (1.02 - 1.01) / 1.02 x 100 = 1.02

Can anyone give me any thoughts please? As I mentioned before, I can go into far more detail about what I have done from start to finish. As per advice I have seen on these forums I have noted down exactly what I have done step by step.

Mnay thanks in advance,

Pwn.

It doesn't seem right that your OG was 1.020, so could you post your recipe, and the techniques you used? And, what do you mean that it doesn't taste good? How is it bad? Bitter, astringent, sour, solventy, etc, ?

any chance you can post the recipe?

Pwntang said:

I measured the gravity right at the beginning and it read 1.020.

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Beginning? Did you take your OG reading right when you transferred to the carboy, before you pitched the yeast or after it already started fermenting?

Wow, fast reply! Thank you.

One thing I forgot to mention is regarding the yeast. The recipe asks for 60g of yeast, but when I went to the brew shop I was told that a 6g sachet of Munton's activated yeast would be sufficient.

Secondly, I am a beginner, so don't be surprised if I have made a schoolboy error.

Just FYI, I have a Electrim Boiler for mashing.

Here is the recipe I used. I'll get my notebook and list what I did step by step a little later:

Receipe is from "Brewing beers like the ones you buy"

5 Gallons Original Gravity 1040 25 Litres
Crushed pale malt 3000 gm
Torrefied barley 250 gm
Crushed crystal malt 200 gm
Water for 'bitter' brewing 15 litres
Irish Moss 5 ml
Brewing sugar 250 gm
Molasses 60 gm
Fuggles hops 75 gm
Goldings hops 15 gm
Brewers yeast 60 gm
Gelatine 15 gm
Brown sugar 60 gm
Brewing Stages

1. Raise the temperature of the water up to 60c and sire in the crushed malts and grain. Stirring continuously, raise the temperature up to 66c. Leave for 1.5 hours, occasionally returning the temperature back to this value.

2. Contain the mashed grain in a large grain bag to retrieve the sweet wort. Using slightly hotter water than the mash, rinse the grains to collect 4 gallons (20 litres) of extract.

3. Boil the extract with the hops for 1.5 hours. Dissolve the main batch of sugar and molasses in a little hot water and add this during the boil. Also pitch in the irish moss as directed on the instructions.

4. Switch off the heat, strain off the clear wort into the fermenting bin and top up to the final quantity with cold water.

5. When cool to room temperature add the yeast. Ferment 4-5 days until the specific gravity falls to 1010 and rack into gallon jars or a 5 gallon fermenter with airlock. Apportion gelatine finings before fitting airlocks.

6. Leave for 7 days before racking the beer from the sediment into a primed pressure barrel. Allow 7 days conditioning before sampling.

YooperBrew said:

what do you mean that it doesn't taste good? How is it bad? Bitter, astringent, sour, solventy, etc, ?

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The only way I can describe it is that it tastes kinda 'metalic'. Does that make any sense?? (probably not!)

Pwntang said:

The only way I can describe it is that it tastes kinda 'metalic'. Does that make any sense?? (probably not!)

Click to expand...

Yep, that makes sense. That can come from a couple of different things, especially your water.

Did you check a specific gravity in the fermenter, before you added the yeast? How well were your grains crushed?

Well, one reason for your apparently low OG could be explained by your step 4.
"and top up to the final quantity with cold water."
If you did this, and didn't mix the top off water really well with the wort, and assuming you took the gravity sample from the top, you would have taken the gravity of the top off water, slightly adulterated by the wort. Your real OG could have been considerably higher.
As for the metallic flavo(u)r, that could be caused by green beer. It may go away in a few weeks.

-a.

Okay, so here's what I did:

1. Heat 15 ltrs of water to 60 degrees (in the electrim boiler)
2. Put grains into grain bag and add to boiler
3. Raise temp to 66 degrees
4. Wait 1.5 hours (temperature between 60-66 degrees)
5. Drain some wort into jug, pour over grain. Repeat until clear
6. Drain wort into a fermenting bin
7. Boil kettle to 66 degrees, wash over grain bed (contained in the grain bag over the fermenting bin). Repeat until a TOTAL of 20 litres (including the original 15 litres) of water has been collected.
8. Pour back into boiler.
9. Bring to the boil 100 degrees. Dissolve molasses and brewing sugar in 400ml of boiling water whilst waiting.
10. After boiling point is reached, add all hops.
11. Wait 10 minutes, add molasses and suger mix.
12. Add Irish Moss 15 minutes before the end of the boil period (boil period is 1.5 hours total at 100 degrees, not including the time taken to get to the boil)
13. Pour wort into a fermenting bin, filtering through the side of the grain bag.
14. Top up to 25 litres with bottled water.
15. Wait to cool to room temp (took all night)
16. Take gravity reading ----> 1.020
17. Add 6g of Muntons Active Yeast
18. Put lid on with airlock

On point 14 onwards, at no point did I stir the mixture.

The airlock was bubbling nicely after 1 day. 7 Days Later.....

1. Take gravity reading ----> 1.010
2. Siphon into a different fermenting bin.
3. Add gelatine and stir thoroughly (MISTAKE! I'll explain later).
4. Screw on lid and add airlock.

7 Days Later.....

MISTAKE -> The gelatine did not disolve and left huge clumps in my beer - my bad. I should have dissolved this in boiling water first. Live and learn!

1. Dissolve 60g of brown sugar in some boiling water and add to a sanitised pressure barrel.
2. Siphoned beer from fermenting bin into pressure barrel, leaving all the 2elatine in the fermenting bin.

Gravity is still 1.010.

Hopefully someone can point out at which point I went wrong! I am working away this week and I don't know if the hotel has WWW access, so if I don't reply straight away please forgive me.

Thanks for all your help so far.

When you say "top up to 25 liters with boiled water" as a step, are you saying you added an additional 25 liters of water to your boiled wort, or that you topped off your boiled wort to reach 25 total liters?

Failing to stir between steps 14 and 16 would definitely result in a low gravity reading.
Apart from the fact that you don't know what your real OG was, this won't make any difference. When the yeast is added, they will find the sugars, and mix everything up for you.

-a.

I think ajf, et al, are correct that you didn't stir up your wort after topping with water. That will definitely give you a bad gravity reading.

As to the taste, I suspect it's not done conditioning yet. Give it a few weeks and it'll mature nicely. In the mean time, brew up another batch! Learn from whatever mistakes you discovered the first time, and make the next batch even better!

RDWHAHB!!

I don't see any reference to how you crushed the grains. Did you buy everything pre-crushed? What did it look like?